Currently 10% of households are users of the internet for activities other than e-mail. Although estimates of the number of households currently using a computer for bill paying vary widely, it is estimated that by the year 2000, about 10% of the population will use a computer for bill paying. Regardless, all users still receive bills the "old fashioned" way through the U.S. mail, requiring physical retrieval, sorting, prioritizing, and placing beside the computer or the telephone for payment.
Paying bills is one of the major financial activities of consumers and businesses, and the task is unattractive, time consuming and recurring. Each bill paid by mail costs the consumer a minimum of postage plus checking charges, and each bill sent by mail costs the biller a minimum of postage plus printing charges. It is estimated that around 19 billion bills per year are sent and paid today, not including many non-bill statements. The use of technology for electronic bill presentment and payment can reduce the cost of the billing and payment process for up to 100 million U.S. households and their vendors and service providers.
There is a current need to provide a single, flexible approach to electronic bill presentment and payment that is acceptable to financial institutions and the financial services industry, that enables billers and consumers respectively to present and pay a majority of bills electronically, that meets the long term needs of financial institutions and their customers, and that enables financial institutions to provide a range of value-added services for their customers.
There is a further need for an electronic bill presentment and payment system which provides consumers with the ability to transact bill payments across delivery channels such as the internet, automated teller machines/customer activated terminals (ATM/CAT's), interactive television, and telephone; which enables consumers to determine how or if their financial data is to be used; and which supports the same range of payment instruments such as credit cards, checks or cash found in the physical world.
There is also a need for a computerized bill presentment and payment system which provides billers with control over how their bills are presented and how their financial data is used; which provides flexibility and extensibility to adapt to frequent technological advances; and which provides a high quality, trusted, low cost alternative to existing bill and consumer service providers.